Turn Your Phone into a Full-Fledged PC Partner

Bob Emmerson

Most of today's PC telephony solutions emulate the functionality of a phone in software by turning your PC into a speakerphone, but they don't give you control over the call. You can't accept a call and switch it to another handset, you can't record a conversation, and you are not able to forward voice mail to other users. In other words, the phone doesn't integrate well with the TAPI- and MAPI-compliant applications on your Windows 95 desktop.

PhoneRider changes this predicament. This new telephony board makes the integrated 33.6-Kbps voice and data modem a digital extension of the PC and combines it with the messaging capabilities you are used to. By digitizing the incoming voice signal befor e you hear it, PhoneRider gives you full control over the call. For example, you can switch naturally to and from a re gular handset or another speakerphone and set up conference calls. Your PC will always know what type of terminal is active. You can also record voices at any time during a conversation.

Digitizing the audio signal makes voice quality and echo cancellation better, which is particularly important for speakerphones. For example, I placed the microphone in front of the speakers without getting any acoustic feedback.

PhoneRider comes as an ISA board, but the company says an external version that connects to a USB interface will be available later this year. The system can also run in client/server mode, giving you a full-featured Intelligent Voice Recognition solution with an auto-attendant and multiple mailboxes on the server.

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Where to Find

PhoneRider...............................$250

Mediaphonics
Bevaix, Switzerland
Phone:    +41 32 847 9600
E-mail:   
info@mediaphonics.com

Internet: 
http://www.mediaphonics.com

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Draw a Pair to Partnership

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